Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings everywhere be happy and free and may the thoughts, words
and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to
that freedom for all.
Thanks to
Nadine Somjen and Tondra Lynford for use of the above photographs
Hello Yogi's
We love Yoga. Yoga is an essential to our wellbeing. Vinyassa flow and meditation keeps us
strong.
Trudy Lingham had been trying to conceive for two years when she went
to her first yoga for fertility class in Vancouver. While she enjoyed the
yoga, she was intimidated by all the talking and felt stressed listening
to the stories of other women's fertility struggles.
"I wanted to focus on the positive," she says. "But for
a lot of people, the yoga class was a last resort and they were nervous
and upset."
Ms. Lingham, 43, persisted because she enjoyed the yoga poses, but she
says watching others in the class get pregnant was bittersweet.
"You're happy for them," she says, "but you also think: Why
not me?"
Six months into her classes, Ms. Lingham discovered she was carrying a
baby. She had tried all sorts of things - acupuncture, traditional Chinese
medicine, Pilates - so she isn't sure what worked.
>>
IMAGE
"What I do know," she says now, holding her eight-month-old
baby girl, "is that it was one of the things that helped me and it
certainly never did any harm."
Yoga for fertility is a relatively new movement in Canada. There is one
studio teaching classes and training instructors in Vancouver, and there
are two in Toronto. But more women are turning to yoga to complement
traditional Western medical treatments for fertility.
Sue Dumais, who runs Family Passages studio in Vancouver, says since
she started teaching yoga for fertility three years ago, the number of
women signing up has increased exponentially.
In January, she will be in Toronto leading instructor training sessions
and workshops for an international group and launching her latest book, Yoga
for Fertility.
"There are so many women struggling with fertility and dealing
with the emotional loss every month. Yoga is a way for them to share their
stories and to see they're not alone."
But will yoga help you get pregnant? That's a question Ms. Dumais hears
often.
"I say no. But it will help your body get balanced and it will
improve your fertility. The women who come to me are generally desperate
and willing to try anything. And when they come in here and experience
yoga, they get to know themselves better and can cope with the stress and
anxiety of infertility from a place of empowerment rather than
desperation."
Beth Taylor, an obstetrician and co-director of the Genesis Fertility
Centre in Vancouver, admits that while most doctors are skeptical about
the efficacy of yoga in treating fertility, it does make sense for
patients for whom stress and mental health issues are involved.
"There's not a lot known about fertility," she says. "We
don't yet have an explanation for the woman who does IVF [in vitro
fertilization] or some other high-tech fertility treatment to conceive her
first child and then gets pregnant normally with her second."
Alice Domar, executive director of the Domar Centre for Mind/Body
Health at Boston IVF and a researcher at Harvard University's medical
school, conducted a study published in 2000 that took infertile women
(those who had been trying to get pregnant for at least one year) and
placed them in a 10-week program that included yoga, meditation, and
nutrition and lifestyle information. Fifty-five per cent of participants
in this program had babies compared with 20 per cent of women in a control
group.
Dr. Domar, who uses a mind/body approach, including yoga to treat women
attending Boston IVF, the biggest infertility treatment centre in the
United States, says that while there is no scientific link between yoga
and fertility, yoga can be a valuable asset for women struggling to get
pregnant.
"There are three reasons why I have my fertility patients do
yoga," she says. "One: It's very effective relaxation. Two:
Infertility patients tend to be angry with their bodies. They're not doing
what they want them to do, and yoga gives them back the sense that their
body can make them feel good. And three: I personally believe, and there's
some data to support this, infertility patients need to cut down on the
intensity and frequency of aerobic exercise, and hatha yoga is a
phenomenal substitute."
Kelly Mostat, 32, had spent more than a year trying to conceive when
she heard about yoga for fertility. Her husband was told his low sperm
count would make getting pregnant difficult and she had just miscarried.
She had done yoga before, but stopped because of the stress of not being
able to conceive. She thought the classes would be a good way to focus on
herself again.
For Ms. Mostat, it was the conversation in the classes that made an
impact.
"It was nice to know others were going through it," she says.
"A lot of my friends were getting pregnant without even trying and
that was hard, so being able to talk about my struggle getting pregnant
was really important."
Ms. Mostat got pregnant after only a few months of the class and
attributes her success to a combination of things, including a
visualization exercise in which she imagined holding a baby of her own and
belly dancing, which helped her relax.
Still, yoga doesn't work for every woman struggling with fertility. Ms.
Dumais, who had a son five years ago after two years of trying to
conceive, has yet to become pregnant since she started teaching and
practising yoga for fertility. It was her unsuccessful attempts to have a
second child that led to the creation of her classes. She's been teaching
now for three years, and although she is saddened by not getting pregnant,
she has made peace with herself.
"If I get pregnant, great," she says. "If I don't, I'm
okay with that, too. In my own journey, I've come to accept and trust what
will happen." -
2009 January 7 GLOBE
& MAIL
Boomer tastes are all grown-up
This is going to make me sound ancient, but when I was a little girl, there
was nothing glamorous about yoga. Celebrities didn't do it, or if they did,
they didn't discuss their "practices" - Bikram, tantric or
otherwise. There were no Lululemon pants or yoga mats in pretty colours or
cute bags to go with them. There were no celebrity yoga teachers and no
expensive retreats at five-star hotels in the Caribbean. In fact, yoga was
so very unglamorous it was the kind of thing done in dingy community-centre
basements or on a rug at home in front of the TV along with an earnest,
lumpy woman in an ill-fitting leotard on PBS.
But, as we all know, something has happened to yoga, along with all the
other pet predilections the boomer generation held in their student days. It
has grown up, moved uptown and become as well-heeled and worldly as the
boomers themselves.
Right now, within a stone's throw of the busy corner of my midtown
Toronto neighbourhood, not one but five haute Indian restaurants have
recently opened their doors. No student curry houses, these boast fresh
white linens, high-end modern interiors and meticulously described $28
entrees that are "infused" with exotic fruits and spices, rather
than dumped into a chrome tub under a heat lamp at the $6 all-you-can-eat
buffet. And the same thing has happened with all the other world cuisines
originally adopted as wallet-friendly and adventurous by the first
generation of student backpackers, from designer Thai to upscale pizza.
That these choices now exist is proof not only of the boomer generation's
much-cited and continuing impact on consumer culture, but that tastes
themselves can mature and become sophisticated.
In fashion, for instance, it is no
coincidence that the "rich hippie" look flourishes season after
season, as a vast clientele of now-rich, once-hippie buyers cannot seem to
get enough of $3,000 designer caftans, accessorized with "tribal"
belts and oversized "ethnic" jewellery. Of course, jeans are no
longer simple Levi 501s but designer must-haves, and set you back hundreds.
Even vintage has gone couture.
Homes and condos are now furnished in a
grown-up version of the boomer's first studio apartment, complete with a
high-end, ragtag assortment of "eclectic" and intentionally
mismatched pieces. Instead of a reclaimed wooden hydro spool from the trash,
coffee tables are reclaimed blocks of teak from the Amazon rainforest.
Bathroom tiles and dinner plates are "designer rustic" and the
material on a $12,000 sofa comes pre-aged and deliberately worn straight
from a French mill.
Forget Florida and Arizona. When these
former backpackers go on vacation, they splurge on $50,000 custom family
safaris in Kenya and eco-tours in Central America. Instead of bedding down
in funky hostels, they rent funky Moorish palaces in Morocco and crumbling
Tuscan villas overgrown with vines. And in a well-heeled version of that
year after college they spent working abroad on a kibbutz, they "give
back" by combining charitable work in a developing country with an
exotic family vacation.
The easy response is that all of this is
happening because the larger culture is simply giving boomers what they
want. But the fact is that fiftysomethings are not the only generation
buying into it. There is a new, intergenerational sophistication out there
in what were originally rather crude notions of authenticity or worldliness.
Where a creative salad once meant dirty
bean sprouts thrown into a sandy bunch of spinach, there is now a mass
craving for arugula. White wine, even at openings, is no longer the cheapest
plonk, but sauvignon blanc or viognier. Whole Earth living now means signing
onto the waiting list for the latest hybrid and spending a wad on geothermal
power.
Moreover, thanks to the current
generation of influencers - the boomers' twentysomething offspring - there
is a welcome complexity to all this trading-up of taste. In the same way
that you can no longer dress straight out of the 1970s without somehow
"mixing it up" with other random or contradictory stylistic
associations, nothing will ever be as direct and uncomplicated as it was
back in the boomers' heyday. For better or worse - and thanks in large part
to the generation that brought us the notion of "cool" in the
first place - we have all become connoisseurs.
- 2008 May 31 GLOBE
& MAIL
Yoga induces a feeling of well-being in
healthy people, and can reverse the clinical and biochemical changes
associated with metabolic syndrome, according to results of studies from
Sweden and India. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of heart disease risk
factors such as high blood pressure, obesity and high blood sugar.
Dr. R.P. Agrawal, of the SP Medical
College, Bikaner, India, and colleagues evaluated the beneficial effects of
yoga and meditation in 101 adults with features of metabolic syndrome. In
the study, 55 adults received three months of regular yoga including
standard postures and Raja Yoga, a form of transcendental meditation daily,
while the remaining received standard care.
Waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar,
and triglycerides were significantly lower, and "good" HDL
cholesterol levels were higher in the yoga group as compared to controls,
Agrawal's team reports in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical
Practice.
In the second study, published online December 19
in BioMed Central Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Dr. Anette
Kjellgren from the University of Karlstad, Sweden and colleagues evaluated
the beneficial effects of yoga-like breathing exercises on healthy
volunteers.
Fifty-five adults were advised to practice "Sudarshan
Kriya," which involves cycles of slow normal and rapid breathing
exercises. The exercises were practiced for an hour daily, six days a week
for six weeks, while 48 controls were advised to relax in an armchair for 15
minutes daily.
At the end of the study period, feelings of
anxiety, stress and depression were significantly lower and levels of
optimism significantly higher in the yoga group compared to the control
group, Kjellgren and colleagues report.
Yoga induces a "relaxation response"
associated with reduced nervous system activity and a feeling of well-being
probably due to an increase in antioxidants and lower levels of the stress
hormone cortisol, they suggest.
Yoga not only helps in prevention of lifestyle
diseases, but can also be "a powerful adjunct therapy when these
diseases arise," co-investigator Dr. Faahri Saatiglou, from the
University of Oslo, told Reuters Health. "We do not emphasize this
point enough in our Western health care."
SOURCES: Diabetes Research and Clinical
Practice, December 2007, BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, online
December 19, 2007 - REUTERS
Heal me: the latest yogic mantra
Michael, 50, of
Vancouver was well aware yoga can improve flexibility and fitness, but he
was unprepared for the cathartic release of emotions he experienced during
his first yoga therapy session.
As he lay on the
floor while yoga therapist Danielle McDermott gently stretched his body,
Michael, who had been suffering from anxiety attacks and paralyzing feelings
of inadequacy at work, suddenly began twitching uncontrollably.
“I started to get
this overwhelming feeling of shaking and trembling through my whole body,”
he said.
By manoeuvring his
body into a series of poses while she asked about his feelings, Ms.
McDermott had unplugged a stream of thoughts and fears that he'd been
suppressing, said Michael, who asked that his full name not be used.
“I left that
session after, feeling an incredible emotional release,” he said.
“Physically, I felt lighter. I felt like I was floating.”
Yoga therapy – the
use of yoga poses for physical and mental healing – is emerging as a
complementary treatment to mainstream medicine for a wide range of ailments,
from chronic pain and injuries, to depression and anxiety. Since 2004,
membership in the U.S.-based trade group, the International Association of
Yoga Therapists, has tripled to more than 2,100. Canadian membership in the
IAYT has also nearly tripled, to about 130.
In the United
States, yoga therapy is used to help patients who have undergone heart
surgery reduce their stress and avoid repeat hospitalization, as well as to
provide relief for returning Iraq veterans with post-traumatic stress
disorder.
In Canada, a handful
of health-care centres, such as southern Alberta's main cancer treatment
centre, the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, are also offering yoga therapy to their
patients.
But while medical
professionals agree yoga can benefit health, physicians and yoga therapists
alike say patients should proceed with caution as there are no standards for
yoga therapy training.
Ms. McDermott, who
is a Vancouver psychotherapist and certified yoga therapist, said the
rationale behind yoga therapy is simple.
“Everything –
every thought, every emotion we have – affects our body because it's all
connected,” she said. Constant stress and anxiety can manifest as chronic
physiological conditions, she said.
“Yoga therapy is
trying to release the emotional content of what they're experiencing while
also releasing the physical constriction or tension,” Ms. McDermott said.
Unlike regular yoga
classes, yoga therapy is usually practised one-on-one or in small groups,
and the poses are customized to each client. The style of yoga also varies
from therapist to therapist.
Although it's
classified as a CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) therapy, akin
to massage and acupuncture, yoga therapy is still in its infancy.
John Kepner, the
executive director of the IAYT, attributes its growth to a general rise in
the popularity of yoga.
But the lack of
standards for yoga therapy training remains a major challenge for the
practice. Creating a credentialing system is difficult because there are so
many different approaches to yoga, Mr. Kepner said.
Practised
incorrectly, yoga can be harmful, said Dr. Taizoon Baxamusa, a spokesman for
the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and assistant professor of
orthopedic surgery at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He said he often
sees patients who injure themselves practising yoga.
Novices sometimes
push themselves too far, he said, while yoga instructors and therapists who
aren't adequately trained can give “less than proper advice.”
Dr. Baxamusa added
that while studies show yoga therapy does help certain conditions, it's not
commonly used as an isolated treatment.
“Where we may use
yoga is in conjunction with formal occupational or physical therapy,” he
said.
Yoga therapy experts
also stress that the practice is not meant to replace traditional medical
care. Ms. McDermott noted it is not covered by provincial medical insurance
in Canada.
“Yoga is primarily
a liberation philosophy … a spiritual practice that also has health-care
benefits,” Mr. Kepner added.
In Norfolk,
Virginia, retired vascular surgeon Dr. Dilip Sarkar says he knows firsthand
the health benefits of yoga therapy.
Dr. Sarkar took up
Ayurvedic yoga, practised within the traditional Hindu system of medicine,
after a heart attack six years ago at the age of 52.
Since then, he said,
his cardiovascular function has improved and he has reduced his use of
pharmaceuticals. Dr. Sarkar is now training to become an Ayurvedic
practitioner and prescribes yoga to people with cardiovascular illnesses.
At Calgary's Tom
Baker Cancer Centre, yoga and meditation are used to reduce anxiety in
patients while they undergo chemotherapy and other medical treatments, said
Dr. Linda Carlson, a researcher and psychologist with the Alberta Cancer
Board.
However, she said,
yoga therapy is not well incorporated in the Canadian health-care system;
only a few centres currently offer it.
Michael, the
Vancouver resident who suffered from anxiety attacks, said his emotional
issues are still a work in progress.
After about nine
yoga therapy sessions and months of constant practice, he no longer feels as
anxious when he attends meetings or interacts with people at work.
“I would say I'm
90 per cent through all of that,” he said. “The critical thing that I
realized is that if I do [continue to suppress feelings], I'm going to end
up having, literally, constipation of my emotions.”
- 2008 January 4 NATIONAL
POST
In Hot Pursuit Of Yoga Mama
She's busy and choosy. But reach her, and you tap into her network of friends, too
Two-year-old Casandra King's bedroom
is stocked with products that are very different from those her mother,
Julia, had when she was that age. Instead of Johnson & Johnson Baby Oil
and Vaseline, the Edison (N.J.) toddler gets slathered daily with
petroleum-free lotions from California Baby. Her mom pays three times the
price of the mass brands. And Casandra's dresser is filled with organic
cotton shirts and pajamas from niche marketers such as Hanna Andersson and
Mama's Earth, which can cost 50% more than clothes from Sears, where Julia's
mother shopped for four kids 35 years ago.
Julia King, 38, is part of an emerging class of women whom marketers call
Yoga Mamas. These middle- and upper-income mothers are more style- and
brand-conscious than their parents. No matter their income, they spend like
lottery winners on their babies and toddlers. In the process, they're
revolutionizing the baby-products market and forcing manufacturers and
retailers of all sizes to adjust.
From the start, they are focused on active, fashionable, and fit
pregnancies, and then on the fitness and well-being of their offspring. They
tend to be more educated and have more disposable income to spend on fewer
children than past generations. As a result, the $27 billion infant and
preschool products business is growing more than 4% per year, faster than
the overall toy, apparel, and furniture industries. "This group is
influencing other moms who have money and plenty of moms who don't,"
says Timothy Dowd, a senior analyst at market research firm Packaged Facts.
"Yoga Mama is pumping up sales across the board."
Marketers say the evidence is in the brisk sales of premium-priced products:
Burt's Bees Buttermilk lotion is $8.99 and a top seller at drugstore.com;
$11.50 buys a 2 oz. jar of popular California Baby Calendula Cream at Whole
Foods Market ; Italian leather toddler shoes are $129 at Nordstrom; Bugaboo
strollers Yoga moms love for ergonomic design and brand cachet are $700 and
up. And the appeal is well beyond Rodeo Drive and Manhattan's Upper East
Side, where baby-bling-buying includes Gund brand diamond and emerald
jewelry for newborns.
PICKLE BOTTOMS AND BUGABOOS
Although yoga mamas may draw titters for sneaking kelp into their toddlers'
meatballs, marketers aren't laughing at their spending and influence. Many
women are starting families later in life, when they have financial footing
and established tastes. And there is a greater tendency among new parents to
think their toddlers need the best of everything to succeed in life.
"These mothers aren't buying baby products so much as extending their
lifestyle to their babies," says Linda Murray, editor of
www.babycenter.com.
That's why many new baby products are designed more with mom in mind than
baby. Kids still gravitate to Winnie the Pooh, but the trendiest diaper bags
are made by manufacturers such as Petunia Pickle Bottom and Fleurville and
cost $150 and up, eight times the cost of a Pooh bag at Target. The designer
bags, in patterns such as houndstooth and red Asian brocade, have appeared
conspicuously in ABC's Desperate Housewives and The Oprah Winfrey
Show. And pricey strollers are justified in part because their rugged
and lightweight design helps Mom burn calories via power walking, aka "strollercizing."
Bigger spending is fed by an attitudinal change toward motherhood. Superfit
mothers-to-be flaunt their bulging bellies in cropped tops and low-rise
jeans. "Soccer moms are passé," says author Katherine Stewart,
whose recently published first novel, The Yoga Mamas, follows a group
of fashion-obsessed mothers through spas and baby boutiques. "They are
no longer content to be lunchbox-packers, and want to make motherhood a
personal statement."
Like any fashion-focused industry, the new-baby business requires
near-constant reinvention. Fast-growing Tiny Love, an Israeli maker of
preschool playthings, launches new versions of its Gymini play mats, which
feature dangling toys suspended mobile-like above the infant, flashing
lights, and Mozart tunes, almost every 12 months. The latest Gymini Total
Playground retails for $70, a 75% jump from the 1993 original. Oded Ben-Ezer,
CEO of Tiny Love importer Maya Group Inc., expected higher-end versions to
be just 20% of sales. But to his surprise, each pricier Gymini displaces the
lower-priced ones. "Mothers are saying, 'I want the best for my baby.'
This is a competitive world," he says.
Established industry players are scrambling to adapt. Research by
Atlanta-based Carter's Inc., long the leader in baby clothes sold at
department stores, showed moms want a more exclusive and convenient boutique
shopping experience. So Carter's has been rolling out stores in shopping
centers next to retailers like Barnes & Noble and Bed Bath & Beyond
, where Yoga Mamas hang out. Carter's plans to have 250 such stores open
within a few years, up from 30 now.
Even businesses that attract a much broader base of consumers are looking to
Yoga Mamas as a source of growth. Booming natural foods retailer Whole Foods
Markets is trying to enlarge its take of the family budget by appealing to
mothers with more organic baby foods and even children's clothing made from
pesticide-free hemp. Stores have held healthy eating seminars for mothers
called Whole Baby. And some have added a baby registry. "A lot of women
become interested in healthier living when they get pregnant," says
company spokeswoman Kate Lowery.
WORD OF MEGAPHONE
Yoga moms' impact goes beyond consumerism. Joe Trippi, campaign manager for
Howard Dean's unsuccessful 2004 Presidential bid, says Yoga Mamas are in
many ways a more desirable target for politicians than NASCAR Dads or Soccer
Moms because they are so heavily networked -- socially and technologically.
When a campaign gets one as an advocate, says Trippi, it's really getting a
message to dozens more. "The Yoga mom is the center of the megaphone
today."
But Yoga Mamas are not easy to reach through traditional media. Whether
working outside the home or not, shuttling their little ones from doctors'
appointments to play dates gives them little leisure time. Web sites such as
Babycenter.com and parent magazines like Brain, Child have
climbing site traffic and circulation. But shopping, e-mail, and chatting
online are often done late in the evening. A survey of 1,800 mothers done by
babycenter.com on BusinessWeek's behalf found that 40% considered
other moms among their best sources of consumer information, well ahead of
family and the media. Recognizing that time is of the essence to these
shoppers, e-tailer babystyle.com offers a tightly edited product menu of
just four or five items per category.
Still, there's a fine line between hyper-conscientious shopping and outright
materialism. The babycenter.com survey showed 54% of those with household
income between $50,000 and $200,000 said they have been splurging on
high-end baby clothing and gear even when bargain brands are also available.
Too much of that could backfire on their kids. David Bredehoft, chairman of
the department of social and behavioral sciences at Concordia University in
St. Paul, Minn., has studied adults overindulged as children. Those showered
with toys, gear, and clothes later developed low self-esteem that manifested
itself in overeating.
"There's a treadmill of dissatisfaction that acquisition doesn't
solve," says Juliet B. Schor, a Boston College sociology professor and
author of Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer
Culture. Consider the Yoga mom who shells out $129 for a pair of shoes
for her toddler. A really sound child would have more fun with the box they
came in. - By Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles, with David
Kiley in New York BUSINESS
WEEK 7 Nov 2005
A fresh look at marketing sports to women
Sports can be a powerful bonding tool
between the girls, says the Singapore Sports Council (SSC).
'And through the process of bonding with sports, women are also enjoying
the benefits of staying fit, healthy, young and beautiful,' says Michael
Chan, director of SSC's High Participation Division.
The council organised an 'All About Her' seminar yesterday to look at
marketing sports to women, since women process messages differently from
their men.
Guest speaker Amanda Stevens, a gender marketing specialist and creator
of the SheMarketing model, says marketing to women is much more complex than
to men because women make decisions based on various criteria.
'Women's needs and motivation change with different life stages,' she
says.
She has identified the 'butterfly effect' for women, which refers to the
four key life stages.
The first is the socialite stage (age 18-28) when women are driven by new
experiences.
Then come 28-35-year-old high-income earners, who are likely to be
single, establishing their careers and spending big.
The third stage refers to those with a family, 'who are most likely to be
on anti-depressants' because of the transitional stress from being single to
motherhood.
The final stage of women's lives, above 45, sees them try new things
again.
In Australia, targeting of the women's market has raised spectatorship of
horse-racing and football, notes Ms Stevens. 'That has managed to grow the
overall attendance. And one thing we've noted is that when you market to
women, the men will follow.'
According to the 2005 National Sports Participation Survey (NSPS), the
female participation rate in sports here was 42 per cent, a 10 per cent
increase from 2001. But this was still lower than the national average rate
of 48 per cent and the male participation rate of 55 per cent.
While SSC has been pro-actively promoting the benefits of regular sports
participation to women, it has also tried to educate service providers on
the importance of introducing sports activities suitable for women's
lifestyles.
'SSC recognises that women's needs are different from men's,' says Mr
Chan. 'We want to encourage a wider variety of sports activities so they can
pick one that is closer to their lifestyle, so that sports will become part
of their lives. Sports shouldn't be seen as an activity that needs special
time commitment.'
The three most commonly cited reasons for sports participation by women
in NSPS 2005 were keeping fit to maintain health (78 per cent),
unwinding/relieving stress (27 per cent), and leisure (26 per cent). The top
three impediments cited were lack of time due to family, lack of interest
and lack of time due to work. - By Cheah Ui-Hoon SINGAPORE BUSINESS TIMES 4
Nov 2006
Why is me time such a big deal?
A piece of essential wisdom about our lives is broadcast every time a
plane takes off. No, it's not about your tray table. It's this: If the
oxygen mask drops and you're traveling with small kids, put yours on first
-- before you help them.
Too many women, single or married, childless or mothers, are endlessly
fulfilling every obligation except the one to themselves. For your mental,
physical, and psychological well-being, you sometimes just need to stop.
Then you need to do something you want to do. You need to take some Me Time.
Like many things, Me Time is all the more wanted the rarer it gets. In
their recent book, What Women Really Want, pollsters Celinda Lake and
Kellyanne Conway discovered that women across all strata of society feel
overwhelmed with the insatiable demands on them. When they asked what women
wanted more of in their lives, the two most popular answers were
"peace" and "time." They were talking about a sense of
serenity and control over their lives. The women polled also said they would
like more sleep, and that they battle the "guilt that creeps in
whenever they take a break."
There aren't that many breaks, though. The Families and Work Institute (FWI)
found that working mothers spend both more time at the job and more time
with their kids than their counterparts did 25 years ago. Where are they
finding that extra time? "It's coming from time for themselves,"
says Ellen Galinsky, FWI president.
Marianne Legato, a cardiologist, Health Advisory Board member, and author
of Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget, can tell you why: "If
you never have any time except reactive time -- things you must do for
others -- you don't have a sense of control. You are interrupted all the
time. Your brain has trouble resting even during sleep. Such chronic
exhaustion increases the release of stress hormones, and your blood sugar
rises." If this is your normal state, then the physical consequences
increase your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and memory problems. If
that's not enough to scare you into taking some time for yourself, consider
this: The hormonal effects of always being on edge help deposit fat right
around your waist.
There are more than physical benefits to getting off this treadmill.
Taking a break will actually make you discharge your responsibilities
better. Galinsky's surveys show that people who are happiest at work are
those who take time for themselves. "If you shift your focus, you go
back to the other areas of life with more energy," she says.
"You're less stressed, more satisfied with life in general."
So what is Me Time? First, it can't be something you hate doing but feel
you have to do. Take going to the gym, for instance: "Exercise is a
really important tool for my sanity," says Alice D. Domar, PhD, a
psychologist and author of Self-Nurture and Health's Ask Ali column.
"But a lot of women use it as punishment for eating, or see it as an
obligation." If that's you, then exercise doesn't count as Me Time.
For some women, it is a serving of quiet. Kim Renteria, a Houston glass
artist, is a widow with three grown children. Every 5 weeks or so, she
unplugs her phone. It's not that she doesn't enjoy her friends and family,
but she knows she needs 48 hours of solitude for renewal. For many women,
other women are the key to Me Time. Studies have shown that having a strong
network of friends enhances people's satisfaction with life and even their
health.
What is nourishing for one person can be a burden to someone else. If a
book group doesn't appeal to you, maybe an art class does. Some women find
that volunteer work provides a soul-enriching sense of accomplishment. But
if you're someone who says yes to the constant requests for help then
wonders what you were thinking, maybe what you need at this point in your
life is to do less, period.
Maybe sometimes all you need is permission to do what you need to do to
keep yourself sane. To breathe, and be happy. Think of this as your
permission slip. - by Emily Yoffe
CNN
15 September 2006
Latest Hybrid Yoga
Encourages
Giggling Toward a Higher Plane
At a recent Monday night yoga session in New York,
a dozen enthusiasts took some deep breaths, loosened up their shoulders and
entered the lion pose. They put their hands up next to their faces like paws
and stuck out their tongues.
Then, attendees began walking around in circles, looking into each other's
eyes and roaring "ho ho, hah hah."
"I really call this the new yoga," says
Francine Shore, a social worker and one of the four leaders of the 45-minute
gathering of New York's Grabba Giraffe Laughter Club. "It's quite
exhausting while you do it and quite exhilarating."
There's already yogilates and disco yoga. Now,
another yoga hybrid -- "laughter yoga" -- is gaining enthusiasts
in the U.S.
Mixing the breathing techniques of traditional
yoga with mild stretching and fake laughing exercises, laughter yoga is
meant to precipitate real giggles. Proponents say it can help reduce stress
and produce other health benefits, such as alleviating asthma.
Research surrounding laughter and health is in its
infancy, but there are suggestions that laughter appears to boost components
of the immune system, increase pain tolerance and reduce detrimental stress
hormones, which may help lessen the risk of heart attacks. Instructors say
laughter yoga provides all of those benefits, along with a few others,
including alleviating bronchitis and asthma, improving stamina and
self-confidence, relieving depression and anxiety, and toning facial
muscles.
Most everyone agrees: It can't hurt.
The popularity of laughter yoga comes as yoga in
general continues to take off in the U.S. According to a 2003 poll conducted
by Harris Interactive for Yoga Journal, a specialty magazine, more than 7%
of U.S. adults, or 15 million people, now practice yoga, up 28.5% from the
previous year. One in six respondents, representing 35.3 million people,
also expressed the intention to try yoga within the next 12 months.
As yoga spreads, experts say a number of hybrids
have also sprouted, laughter yoga being just one. Other recent spins on
traditional yoga include yo-chi (combining yoga and t'ai chi), yogilates
(yoga and Pilates) and yoga spin (a combination of yoga and cycling).
'Cellphone Laughter'
A basic laughter yoga session runs about 30
minutes, costs anywhere from nothing to about $15, and begins with
deepbreathingandstretching.Then participants go through a serious of
exercises combining some variation of the chant "ho ho, ha ha,"
movement around the room and eye contact. Take "cellphone
laughter": Users pretend to be talking on a cellphone and then, as they
make eye contact with fellow participants, let out an "ah, ha, ha
ha."
During "reprimand laughter,"
participants shake their pointer finger at each other and let out the ha's.
Another popular exercise, "why me laughter," consists of putting
your arms out your sides in an imploring pose, looking at others and asking
"why me? ah, ha, ha, ha." Other exercises include "roller
coaster laughter" (arms up), "aloha laughter" ("alo,"
followed by "ha ha ha") and "penguin laughter" (walk
like a penguin).
Each exercise runs for about a minute and is
followed by some deep breaths and stretching and then it's on to another
pose. According to proponents, the combination of deep breathing, "ho
ho, ha ha" mantras and exercises beneficially stimulates the diaphragm,
abdominal muscles and lungs and, like other forms of yoga, unites the mind
and body. With laughter yoga being one of the freer forms of yoga, anyone
can make up their own exercises.
Participants say being in such silly positions and
seeing others in them quickly creates real laughter. One rule: Participants
are supposed to laugh with each other, not at each other.
"You just see people who are often very
straight-laced and serious laughing hysterically and it's such a refreshing
image," says Daria Myers, president and general manager of Estee Lauder
Cos.' Origins Natural Resources brand, who participated in a laughter yoga
session given by the Grabba Giraffe Laughter Club at an Origins sales
meeting this spring.
Search for Clean Jokes
The current laughter yoga movement is the
brainchild of Madan Kataria, an Indian physician. In 1995, after reading
about the supposed health benefits of laughter, he and four others began
meeting daily in a local Bombay park for morning joke telling. After running
out of punch lines that weren't dirty or offensive, Dr. Kataria remembers
they just looked at each other and began to laugh. It hit on him: It's easy
to laugh for no reason when you see others chuckling.
Based on this notion and some research, he
developed a blend of yoga breathing and "playful" exercises meant
to be practiced in a group. Hence hasya, or laughter, yoga.
"I had also been learning yoga and thought it
could be a very good combination and people would take it more
seriously," says Dr. Kataria, who estimates there are now more than
2,500 laughter clubs world-wide.
Steve Wilson, a psychologist and humor consultant
who learned the technique six years ago in India and founded the World
Laughter Tour Inc., says the U.S. now has more than 100 laughter clubs, most
of which are free gatherings, rather than studios with fees.
The year-old Grabba Giraffe Laughter Club in New
York meets weekly on Monday evenings and recently started giving
presentations at companies. Outside of regular yoga schools, there's
increasing demand for laughter yoga classes from corporations, such as with
Ms. Myers's Origins sales meeting, and associations looking for ways to
counter workplace stress, instructors say.
Lisa Wessan, a self-described "Mirth
Maven" in New York, says she has given 36 laughter yoga programs at
corporations and associations so far this year, compared with just six in
2002.
To be sure, laughter yoga may have only a limited
audience. At the Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in New York, the idea never
really got rolling. The center started a laughter yoga club four years ago
but faded out the endeavor two years ago, replacing it with periodic
workshops every few months. "People didn't come back," says
Laughing Lotus co-founder Dana Flynn, who blames the plethora of other
sources for laughter in the U.S. - By
Jennifer Saranow
Go Ahead Laugh
As yoga spreads, a number of hybrids mixing
yoga techniques with other exer-cises, certain types of music and just about
anything (or nothing) at all have popped up. Here's a smattering of some
examples beyond laughter yoga,.
Yoga + Tai Chi = Yo-Chi
Yoga + Pilates = Yogilates
Yoga + cycling = Yoga spin
Yoga + kinetics = Yoganetics
Yoga + boxing = Boga
Yoga + kickboxing = Yoga kickboxing
Yoga + disco music = Disco yoga
Yoga + hip-hop music = Hip-Hop yoga
Yoga + water = Aqua yoga
Yoga - clothes = Naked yoga
Sources: International Association of Yoga Therapists; WSJ
Research
